Sanctuary for the Abused

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Boundaries & Detachment

Lessons About Emotional Detachment / Boundaries

Part 1: The Incredible Shrinking RelativesLearning to set boundaries is part of the healing process after any form of abuse. This task can be complicated. It seems there will always be people who want to upset you. They could be family members who deny that abuse took place. They could be the offenders or their allies who are still a part of your life. Their comments, expressions, or attitudes can hurt you and make your life much more difficult.

You handle people like this by using an emotional tool called detachment.Like any other emotional process, it is a skill you can learn. It takes practice. But keep working, and you will diminish the effect these people have on your life.

Make the person a smaller part of your life by making other parts of your life bigger. Start a new hobby, a job, learn something new, focus on other people, join a club, take a class, have more contact with friends - you get the idea. The only way to reduce someone's power over your life is to fill your time with other people, places, and things to squeeze them out.

This equation in emotional mathematics means adding things to your life automatically reduces the space taken up by unhealthy people and relationships. Expand your horizons. Occupy your mind with new ideas. The unhealthy person will occupy a smaller portion of your mind, and therefore your life.

Let GoThe unhealthy people in your life use guilt to keep you enslaved. When you begin to detach, you are upsetting the status quo, and they will use guilt to bludgeon you back into place.

Resisting this tactic is difficult but not impossible. Learn to recognize the guilt trip. Think about why they are doing this. You are trying to take care of yourself, and some people will go to great lengths to stop you. They want to maintain the status quo.

Accept that these unhealthy people will never grant their approval. This is a vital part of letting go. In fact, withholding approval is a most effective weapon to keep you enslaved.

When you let go, and honestly don't care if they approve of you, they will have a hard time hiding their surprise. Watch as they mentally scramble to think of another tactic to keep you entangled.

Realize that the other person's problem is not yours. One of the hardest lessons to learn is that no matter how hard you try, you can never, ever, ever change how another person acts. The only thing you can change is your reaction to them. You can fight the guilt they inspire. You can take care of yourself.

Stock PhrasesThe unhealthy people in your life often try to catch you off guard, or will try to ensnare you in a hopeless problem. The response to both tactics is to memorize some stock phrases. Some examples: "Hm. Interesting." "Wow, that's too bad." Or my favorite: "Huh. What are you going to do about that?" The last one is very effective, since these people want you to fix their problems. This response turns the tables on them. You express interest without offering to fix the problem, and force them to offer solutions. Then you conclude with, "Well, that sounds like a good plan. Good luck with it!"

When I felt required to fix things for other people, I remember my therapist asking, "Has this person been declared incompetent? Has the state institutionalized them? No? Then they have the ability to act responsibly and fix this by themselves."

This good point inspires another type of stock response: flattery. "You're a smart person. I have confidence in your ability to solve this." How can they argue with that? Are they going to insist that they're not smart?

Part 2: Set Your BoundariesIt is critical to spend less time with the person you are detaching from. You can decline invitations. You can make excuses and stay away. You can claim illness. You can complain about your crowded work schedule, or how busy you are with the kids. Sure, you have been taught that it's wrong to lie. Well, in this case, it's good to lie. Taking care of yourself is more important than showing up every time. Besides, they lie to you all the time, don't they?

Another effective tactic using this point is to complain at length about how busy you are. The person you're detaching from doesn't care about your problems. Often, they want to talk about their problems. If they keep hearing about your problems, they may stop calling.

Handling The Rough StuffThe person you're detaching from can be very abusive.

Often, the reward they seek is to see the hurt in your eyes and the feeling of power they receive from being the cause of that hurt.

Recognizing this fact will give you unexpected power. The verbal jab is blunted when you know it's only meant to hurt you. And you can deny them the pleasure they seek. Don't debate the point. They want to keep the topic going because they know it's hurting you. Think of the verbal jab as a spitball thrown at you. If you laugh, or pretend you didn't hear it, or do anything else instead of looking hurt, it's the equivalent of ducking and letting the spitball sail by. Shrug off the comment as lightly as possible, and then bring up a topic of your own -- one that you know is distasteful to your tormentor. Doing this will deny them their reward, and give negative reinforcement. Eventually, they will stop attacking you. Bullies like an easy target.

Some examples are in order here. I know a man with verbally abusive parents. He learned to respond -- every time! -- by talking about his brother, who was gay. He described his brother's romantic exploits with enthusiasm, knowing his parents were very uncomfortable with the whole subject.

I know a woman whose uncle was verbally abusive and constantly made comments about her childhood molestation by another uncle. This woman learned to respond by staring at him, appearing distracted (and pretending she wasn't listening), then pointing to a spot on her uncle's face, neck or arms, and asking, "Does that look cancerous to you? Maybe you should get it checked."

Her uncle knew she was saying that as a defense. But he still hated it. And he stopped bothering her.

Take Care Of YourselfIn every life, there are other parts that are good. You have a right and a duty to focus on the good parts. If you have a good husband and child, or sweet pets who adore you, but your mother is making your life a living hell, give yourself permission to focus your time and energy on the good things.

Remember the old phrase, "Listen to your gut?" Don't do that. The unhealthy people in your life use guilt and manipulation to inspire a gut reaction from you. I remember my therapist telling me, "Of course they're good at pushing your buttons! They installed them!" Instead, use your intellect to talk back to your gut feelings. You know that person is no good for you. You know your energies are better spent elsewhere. Take care of yourself. Do what's right for you. Say to yourself over and over again, "Taking care of myself must be my first emotional priority."

There's a book that is very helpful for this step. It's called Feeling Good by Dr. David Burns. Buy it and read it.

Practice, Practice, PracticeWhen you start this process, realize that you will slip up. You have spent all of your life in your relationship with this person, so give yourself a break. Don't punish yourself if you don't detach perfectly. Learn from every experience and try to do a little better next time. Be patient and persistent.

Detaching is a vital skill to practice on someone you are unable or unwilling to completely shut out of your life. You can even still love that person if you want to, even though you have detached. Your goal is to recognize the relationships that are not good for you, and make them a smaller part of your life. You can still care about unhealthy people, if you choose. But at the same time, you can prevent them from running (or ruining) your life.******************************

Experience:Doug has counseled battered women, rape survivors, handled the Crisis Hotline, and has looked into the eyes of four-year-old molested children. He also chairs a local HIV/AIDS support group.

Education:Doug holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Political Science from St. Olaf College and -- almost -- has a Master's in Business Communication from The University of St. Thomas. He just never got around to writing his darned thesis.

From Douglas Larsen:"I believe that education and communication are keys to preventing abuse and incest. Whether you are a survivor, friend, or family member, you will find resources available for help. You don't have to be alone."

5 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for a good article and some helpful ways of dealing with evil ones in our lives.

Per another article on this website I have realized how very deeply this abuse goes. PTSD is now something I realize that I and many suffers of childhood trauma and abuse have. But did you know that there is also CHRONIC ptsd? Yes. I found an article that describes very well what hell we live in. It's titled "Complex Ptsd: A syndrome in Survivors of Prolonged and Repeated Trauma" by Judith Lewis Herman.

See, the thing is, I wasn't physically raped, beaten or overly yelled at as a child. So it may not have appeared that I wasn't being abused. But, my dad (a genetic psychopath) had verbally abused my mother, left her destitute, left the older kids in the hands of foster care and taken me and my younger sibling. This happened when I was around the age of seven. So guess what? I learned to shut-up and comply very early. I KNEW that my basic security rested in this man's hands so being that my nature was already the sort that had me wanting to behave, my fate was sealed. I learned to be a willing, fearful slave. And even though all who knew my dad and KNEW the horrible things he'd done to my family, for some reason when I asked for help in my teens, NOBODY believed me and thought it was somehow to do with me. (During the divorce my dad was a falling down drunk who carried a baseball bat into the courtroom. Nobody ever stopped him or helped his wife and children. They were all too afraid of him and he had been a "great" athlete in college.) This was a smaller town and took place about forty years ago but sadly, this STILL happens all the time.

I still don't understand why there is NO help. I mean, I am just finding out the depths to which this abuse reaches but what about the professionals in the therapy fields? Shouldn't they have seen patterns and shared this info with their fellow therapists? We desparetly need to HELP the people that can be helped. If we don't start to do this we will be left with the emotional rapists (people with the brain functioning of a psychopath) who have raped all the rapable, and there will be none left to "care". It IS really bad little ones. So very bad.

The huge question of how to "cope" with life's realities of abuse that cannot be completely escaped has been at the forefront of my mind lately. This article is immensely practical, helpful and directly answers my question - thank you, thank you, thank you !!!!

It's only recently that I have been even able to recognise that I've been being abused by some of my closest family members after the loss of both of my parents.

I've just and so naturally started taking some of the steps above in actioning detachment but already I feel empowered again for the first time in years. Your article has been so helpful in helping me to reconfirm what has been going on in my life, to take control and continue taking my life and confidence back. Thank you

SANCTUARY FOR THE ABUSED: Articles, clickable links & resources for victims & survivors. Dealing with verbal, psychological & emotional abuse and personality disorders.
This is an informational blog NOT a chat site. If you have questions or need support, Facebook has numerous groups for Narcissism Victims, Narcissistic Family and Domestic Violence Survivors (both female and male)
Or call 1-800-799-7233

This is a FREE site. But, if anything here has been helpful to you or someone you know, please consider making even a small donation. Your support will go DIRECTLY to DV Reform efforts. Or you can donate DIRECTLY here Scroll down for more ways to help. ALL donations are reported to the I.R.S.

***************
***************

CONTACT & SITE INFORMATION

This site does NOT provide legal help, 'sanctuary',
shelter or law enforcement help. This site is
for INFORMATION ONLY.

IP BLOCKER: 617,342 users

GENDER BIAS
Numerous men have come in here and been offended that the abusers are referred to as "he" in many of these articles. I want to make it perfectly clear that I am well aware of the fact that female abusers exist and cause just as much devastation as their male counterparts. The sad fact is that there are more male abusers than female narcissists, but domestic homicide is the leading cause of death in women surpassing cancer and car accidents. A woman dies at the hands of her significant other every 6 days, and when you look at the stats for the whole world it is even more bleak. Worldwide, a woman dies every day due to domestic homicide. One in 3 women will experience abuse in her life. It is a plague on society worldwide, causing devastation and ruining lives of men and women. Abuse is an equal opportunity scourge, abusers don't care what color, nationality, religion, age, health condition or socio-economic status, or gender the victim is, the only prerequisite a victim must have is a heart and empathy.
Replacing he or him with she or her as you read is simple enough. Please remember these articles are NOT written by me but shared as supportive information. Thank you.

If you like this blog,then link back to me.
This is what you will see.

Optionally use this Widget installer to add this link to your blogger blog.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This material is made available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a â€˜fair useâ€™ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Â§107, the material in this message is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.